Click above images to enlarge Vanity Ballroom Building 1024 Newport Street, Detroit - Wayne County Other Names Vanity Ballroom Property Type ballroom Historic Use RECREATION AND CULTURE Current Use RECREATION AND CULTURE Style Art Deco Exotic Revival Architect/Builder CHARLES N. AGREE Narrative Description The Vanity Ballroom was designed by Charles N. Agree in the Art Deco style with Aztec theme. The building is two stories and consists of five retail store spaces on the first floor and a ballroom on the second. The building measures 125 feet along Newport and 121 feet along Jefferson with nearly identical facades on both streets. The building is constructed with a steel and reinforced concrete structural system faced with orange brick with darker brick, cast stone and tile ornamentation. The building contains a three-sided entrance pavilion on the corner, flanked by nearly identical facades on both axes and terminating with identical entrance pavilions at each end. The pavilions rise above the rest of the building and are accented with a geometric patterned course of cast stone below the coping. Cast bronze panels, kick plates and marble surrounds are amoung the rich materials used on the Vanity. The second floor multipaned casement windows are flanked by cast stone, fluted pilasters capped with Aztec-derived geometric designs. Statement of Significance Designed by local architect Charles N. Agree and built in 1929, the Vanity Ballroom Building is significant as an outstanding Art Deco styled building with Aztec theme detailing. It is also significant for containing the last remaining intact ballroom of the grand dance halls in Detroit accommodating the big bands of the 1930s and 1940s. The Vanity hosted such legendary big bands as Count Basie and Tommy Dorsey. The ballroom is a tangible remainder of a popular form of entertainment in the 1930s and 1940s, dancing, and the big-band era. Period of Significance 1929-1958 Significant Date(s) 1929 Registry Type(s) 11/12/1982 National Register listed Site ID# P25270